The Israeli occupation authorities demolished 2775 Palestinian homes in the Negev in 2018 Israel’s Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel said on Monday.
Ariel said in press statements that the Israeli authorities demolished 2172 buildings in the Negev in 2015 and 2523 in 2017 while in 2018 2775 buildings were destroyed an increase by 16%.
Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture said that the number of “unlicensed” buildings in the Negev decreased from 6211 in 2015 to 3421 in 2017 which means that the Palestinian construction activity was reduced by half within two years.
Israel since 2000 has not issued any building permits in the Palestinian villages which it does not recognize in the Negev. Only three families have building licenses in the area.
Ariel earlier this week expressed his happiness at what he described as the “revolution” in the field of organization and construction in the Arab villages of the Negev which was mainly produced by the house demolition policy.
